Not 'stimulus,' but 'recovery' that we need

The pie isn’t out of the oven yet, but there are thousands of hands reaching for a slice.

The 111th Congress is expected to enact a massive economic stimulus package when it takes office in January — a federal program some people believe will cost as much as $1 trillion.

The shopping cart is rolling in New Hampshire. Concord City Manager Tom Aspell recently sent a letter to the state’s congressional delegation asking for money from whatever is appropriated.

It won’t be long before mayors and city managers and boards of selectmen in other communities set the lines of communication humming on behalf of their constituents.

Before long there will be a lot of oars in the water. Let’s hope there are some similar qualities and ambitions.

The Obama administration is taking care to call whatever materializes a “recovery” program. And understandably so.

The term “stimulus” has come to have a pungent smell — a memory of the Bush package that saw $110 billion fly from the Treasury into the hands of 130 million taxpayers. The hope was the money would be pumped back into the economy, priming a recovery. Instead, what happened was most of the $600 and $1,200 checks found their way into some kind of savings or went toward paying off part of a debt that had been incurred. The economy continued to slide and then came the bursting of the housing bubble, the near collapse of the financial industry, the tightening of credit and the threat of failure at General Motors and Chrysler with the additional loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The January stimulus package stimulated little. Uncertainty remained and is far greater today than it was 11 months ago.

So, don’t expect direct mail. If we have learned anything during the past several months it should be there will be no quick fix.

A month ago, President-elect Obama was talking of creating 2.5 million jobs. He has upped the number to 3 million.

Recessions are not broken nor are depressions avoided as long as there is widespread and growing unemployment.

The threat of greater unemployment has to be reduced and people have to be put back to work. It is evident that the Obama administration plans to use infrastructure improvement and expansion to restart the economy in a way meant to re-energize the American people.

It is a better way to spark the economy than is the widespread distribution of direct aid.

The past 50 years has seen an unconscionable deterioration of existing infrastructure. We have seen roads and bridges fall into such disrepair as to make them unsafe for travel. We see roads and highways that were adequate to serve the economies and populations of the 1950s and ‘60s, but not the ‘90s and the 21st century.

Infrastructure in today’s terms will also mean billions of dollars going into energy projects.

The rejuvenation of the American economy must be a public-private partnership — a partnership dedicated to making our country whole again; a partnership that will restore confidence in public and private institutions.

We must guard against thinking all wisdom is generated in Washington, D.C — in its political institutions and sometimes nearsighted think-tanks. A better understanding of what is happening in the 50 states and their large and small communities is vital to restoring and making better the fabric of what we call the United States of America.

The months — even years — ahead will be difficult. Our country is experiencing a gigantic economic, political and social upheaval, the effects of which will be felt for a long time.

The American people are looking for leadership that is genuinely bipartisan. It is not a time for pretenders. It is a time for the real thing.